At the beginning of the year I set off on a personal quest to try to sign up 100 people to steem during 2018. It was my SignUp100 project.
It didn't work and I abandoned it.
Initially, when steem was riding high, I signed up a dozen people in a few weeks. But they didn't stay, retention was dreadful and even with close support and handholding only a couple are still active on the platform.
I realise now that I was taking the wrong approach.
As we have all learnt now, selling the steem idea to someone on the old "Blog and you will Earn" maxim really isn't going to fly.
More likely it will just crash and burn, as steem's poor retention shows.
So I am trying something a little different.
I want to show how steem can be used in a community setting.
Through running the A Dollar A Day project and through my involvement with Fundition.io I have been witness to the value of steem in effecting positive change.
This is still rudimentary - steem is accumulated - steem is donated - steem is converted - good things are done - but it lays down a marker, a starter line in the sand for better things to come.
Even though this is a rather blunt instrument I believe it offers an access point to get community organisations engaged with the steem blockchain.
Introducting @communityaction
This leads me on to setting up a new personal project - @communityaction.
I have spent most of my adult life involved in community and environmental activism.
The past year I have spent most of my spare time active on steem.
These past few months I have been learning how to make use of the steem blockchain to help communities around the world through A Dollar A Day, and more recently Fundition.
But I feel I am only scratching the surface. This may be a massive untapped market for steem.
So now I am going out into the community with @communityaction.
There will be three areas I am going to operate in with @communityaction.
1. Existing Community Organisations and Charities not on Steem
I am going to work with community organisations and charities not currently on steem to show the possibilities of steem for :
- promoting their work and raising awareness of the issues they are involved in
- recruiting members
- raising funds
As many small organisations have Wordpress websites, Steempress will be a most valuable tool for this work, and may provide a fasttrack starting point to onboard them to steem.
I will arrange instant accounts through SteemInvite until a better signup process arrives.
Where suitable I will also be introducing organisations to the crowdfunding possibilities of Fundition, and in some cases A Dollar A Day.
Many of the organisations I will be working with have volunteers. I am keen to explore ways organisations and their volunteers can interact through steem.
The first organisation I am working is an environmental conservation charity I know in west Wales.
I will be on the look out for other organisations to work with, initially in Wales but maybe further afield as the project develops.
2. Setting up my own Community Projects
This one is really burning in my pants.
I have a whole bunch of ideas, but I'll serve them up one at a time.
Early in my Life on Steem I came up with a project called 'Cooking with Steem'.
About 6 months ago I revisted this project and redefined it into a program of steem funded cooking classes for young people at a local community centre.
Alas lack of support on the blockchain and the falling price of steem meant the project couldn't go ahead at the time.
Now I am going to pick this up again. With new crowdfunding facilities like Fundition this might now be the time to take this forward.
3. Mentoring & Supporting Community Projects already on steem
One of the parts of A Dollar A Day I have enjoyed the most has been talking with the people running the projects that get the daily grants.
Some of the projects are well established. Others are newer and sometimes ask for advice or ideas which I am happy to give.
More recently I have been helping A Dollar A Day projects and others with advice on how to submit proposals to Fundition.
As part of the @communityaction project I am planning to expand that help and support that I can offer community projects on steem.
This will initially be in the areas I already assist with but as I onboard more of my available resources this may expand to areas to such as design, promotion, website development etc.
I will also be delegating about half my steempower into @communityaction account so that I can usefully support the projects I work with through upvotes.
These are my plans for @communityaction.
@communityaction and @adollaraday will be working closely together and there will obviously be overlaps between the two.
I hope through this project I can introduce many new organisations to the potential of steem.
I am really looking forward to this new focus.
It feels like a natural culmination of where I have got to so far steemwise and very much the best fit for going forward with my steem activities.
PROJECTS :
A Dollar A Day charitable giving project : July 2018 - summary of donations received and given out
[CONTEST] A Dollar A Day charitable giving project : What can you buy for 1 SBD?
Pennsif's Live Sustainability Curation Digest for MSP - week ending 29 July 2018
BLOGS :
Pennsif’s Progress #592 – Come on Steem, I want to save the planet
Pennsif’s Progress #594 – My first day at the Food Bank
Pennsif's Progress #596 - Should I, Shouldn't I ... tell him about Steem?
RADIO :
The Alternative Lifestyle Show - Friday 3 August 2018 - with @sndbox & @wwf [recording]
The Alternative Lifestyle Show - Friday 27 July 2018 - with @kennyskitchen [recording]
My Life In 8 Songs - 2 August 2018 - @jonmagnusson, @beatseb & @jamesgetsit [recording]
[ images by pennsif & pixabay.com ]